Heretofore it was known in the prior art to place various markings on a golf ball for alignment with regards to a golf club. Typical of such pior art devices is the equatorial markings as disclosed in Yamamoto, U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,172, granted June 24, 1980, the cross-marking of Fyanes, U.S. Pat. No. 3,325,168, granted June 13, 1967; the ink line of DeVries, U.S. Pat. No. 2,709,595, granted May 31, 1955, and the diffraction markings of Ciccarello, U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,441, granted Nov. 25, 1980.
It was also known in the art to provide diverse sighting devices, such as in Branberg, U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,199; Krupicka, U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,076, granted Feb. 17, 1981; and Zank, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,672, granted Apr. 1, 1975.
In other aspects, the prior art also recognized marking an adhesive-backed record paper surface by the golf ball-club impact, such as the NCR paper impact marker of Manheck, U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,764, granted Aug. 28, 1973. It was also known to provide double surface stick-ons to a ball, whereon impact with the club, the stick-on is transferred to the club face, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,132, granted Apr. 23, 1974. Such prior art adhesive-backed construction, suffered the disadvantages of leaving unwanted adhesive on the club face surface and marring the club face surface, as well as being limited to a "sweet-spot" determination, and not to flight correlation data.
It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a novel golf ball alignment marker.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a club marking surface and golf ball alignment device which provides a high degree of accuracy in determining the exact hit location on the golf ball.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a reader to be used with the said alignment marker for accurately determining the strike point on the golf ball.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means for providing alignment markings in relation to a golf ball.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a scope for utilizing the alignment marker system on an actual golf course.
It is a further object of the present invention to determine the club face orientation.
In a further aspect, it is another principal object of the present invention to provide an alignment marker which is readily useful directly with the golf ball in course conditions.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an alignment marker as immediately aforesaid which eliminates adhesive marring of the golf club face.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an accurate yet simple reading of the club face orientation.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a golf ball attached, multiple use alignment marker.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a golf training device utilizing the golf alignment marker, which training device can readily be used indoors.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a golf ball alignment marker which is readily constructed to relatively inexpensive materials and yet practical in design and operation.